One of the first things I did before I even got to Boston to work Boston Calling music festival was look up where to eat. And, at the top of my "best foods in of Boston" search? Not cupcakes but their cousin, donuts.
The first donut spot that popped up in Boston was Blackbird Doughnuts but would my crazy work schedule allow me to find and try Blackbird donuts?
I was about to find out.
Luckily for me, one fateful load-in day as my coworkers and I walked to our long thought after lunch destination we walked right by Blackbird donuts. Being the only one who noticed, I was instantly excited and excused myself to grab my wallet from the car.
"where are you going?!"
"I'm going to buy donuts!"
Met with much less enthusiam from the guy behind the counter, I burst into the small shop wide eyed and beaming. The donuts were all on display in a glass case. Some fancier looking than others. Cake and raised. All with a little beaded name tag on top sans description or price.
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Blackbird doughnut from Balckbird Doughnuts in Boston
photo by Nikki DeMartini |
I had gone in for one donut but I left with three:
1. Blackbird = vanilla cake with vanilla glaze.
2. Blueberry Lavender (not pictured) = rasied doughnut with a purple, blueberry lavender flavored glaze frosting.
3. Strawberry Cupcake = vanilla cake with a strawberry buttercream frosting and a sprinkle of chocolate sprinkles.
I love me an Old Fashioned doughnut and the Blackbird doughnut looked like the closest thing to an Old Fashioned that they had to offer so there was no question there.
I am a sucker for purple (no I am not a purple person) and though I'm more of a cake girl than raised, I do enjoy a a good lavender flavor so Blueberry Lavender was my second choice. As the not very friendly assumed Bostonian put the two doughnuts in a white paper bag I noticed the name of one of the cupcakes in the display case. Strawberry Cupcake.
Strawberry Cupcake doughnut?!
I added one Strawberry Cupcake doughnut to my order in the nick of time and watched in a subtle horror as the Blackbird employee added the doughnut covered in whipped buttercream frosting in the bag with the other two doughnuts instead of a separate box. Or at the very least it's own bag but whateva, Boston!
Little did I know that this was the flavor of month in May which is understandable because strawberry season in Massechusetts starts in May!
What I did know is that I love doughnuts, I review cupcakes, I've been saying doughnuts are cupcakes' cousins for a while and cupcake doughnuts aren't something you see very often, if at all.
This was the last doughnut that I ate. The rasied blueberry lavender was the first to go because raised doughnuts go stale faster and knew I wasn't eating all three doughnuts in one day. I was unsurprisingly underwhelmed. The blueberry and lavender were indsitingishable confirming my suspesions that the eyecatching icing was nothing but a ploy.
Next up, the signature Blackbird doughnut.
I have put a lot of delicious doughnuts in my mouth. This one takes the cake as one of the best doughnuts I've ever had the pleasure of eating. The buttery, fluffy cake melted in my mouth with each bite. It doesn't have the shape or consistancy of original Old Fashioned doughnuts but there is a crispiness around it's edges that's undeniably Old Fashioned doughnut fashion. Same goes for the icing that smoothered the whole thing. Ten out of ten.
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Blackbird doughnut from Balckbird Doughnuts in Boston
photo by Nikki DeMartini
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The last doughnut I ate was the Strawberry Cupcake one, I kept it in the fridge until it was time to preserve what I thought was whipped cream on top.
Turns out it was not whipped cream but in fact strawberry flavored buttercream. It wasn't until I made my way to the center of the frosted cupcake doughnut that the frosting got more dense which leads me to believe it's a whipped buttercream frosting.
I smelled the strawberry before I tasted it which was leaps and bounds in comaprrison to the blueberry, lavender flavor of the other cupcake. Both the Blackbird doughnut and the Strawberry Cupcake doughnut are cake based but they were two totally different cakes! As mentioned above, the cake of the Blackbird Doughnut was fluffy and buttery but the Strawberry Cupcake doughnut wasn't butteryor fluffy, it was what you expect of a doughnut shop cake based doughnut. Of course I took into consideration that it had been in the fridge which may have contributed to it's denseness but not it's lack of buttery-ness.
This was a first, I couldn't finish it. I enjoyed it with a cup of coffee before work and it was just too much first thing in the morning. My huge sweet tooth was no match for this doughnut. Children will rejoice but parents be ware!
So grateful that this unexpected work perk happened: I got to eat Boston based doughnuts in Boston and discovered that doughnut cupcakes are indeed a thing.
New month means new flavors of the month at Blackbird Doughnuts!
Before leaving Boston a great friend, beautiful mentor, a lovely lady from Boston showed me around town. She's not, not a foodie and took me to some good local spots including Mike's Pastry.
Infamous for their cannolis, Mike's is a stop you can't miss when in Boston, a must, a tourist attraction. The place was packed and a little chaotic. A border of photos of every flavor of cannoli they have lines the walls, there must be over twenty different flavors! An array of other pasteries filled the pastry cases and in one of them, cupcakes.
Beacause Mike's is cash only and I only had a little bit of cash on me I spent it on one cannoli (I wanted to get three) and since it was my first experience of Mike's Pastry I went with the traditional cannoli flavor ie: plain. It was delish.
My friend got a pistachio cannoli and shared it with me.
When I say she's the best she's the best, she shared her cannoli with me and I didn't even have to ask.
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Mike's Pastry s in Boston
photo by Nikki DeMartini |
Before leaving, my indecisiveness and subsequent last minute addition of two Italian anise cookies to my order visibly annoyed the very Bostonian lady behind the counter who helped us.
Was my California showing?
My friend and I giggled about it as we left, I got the full Boston experience. Next time I go back I'll be ready with my order and it will probably include a cupcake. And maybe a Boston Creme pie, we will see!
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